“Maybe she should stop being a vegetarian.”
“Or maybe I should take her out to more than one place,” Jack said, holding open the door to the room that would serve as their hideout before pressing the button on his radio. “Okay, everyone is in position. Open up the floor to visitors. We’re ready.”
“WHAT ARE YOU doing out here?”
Max met Ivy in front of the hot chocolate stand, a knit cap pulled over his ears and a curious look on his face.
“What are you doing out here?” Ivy shot back, annoyed.
“I’m late heading to the barn,” Max replied, refusing to let her draw him into an unnecessary fight.
“Oh, well … it’s fine. Hannah is running through the opening number with them again until I can get back for the dress rehearsal.”
“I’m surprised you left them at all. I thought for sure that you would be watching them like a mother hen overseeing her flock.”
Ivy made an annoyed face patented by sisters the world over. “I am not a mother hen.”
“No, but you’re good with them. You listen to them. You talk to them. Those are things Simone never did.”
Ivy rubbed her gloved hand over her forehead. “I don’t want to talk about Simone.”
“I think we need to.”
“Max … .”
“No, you need to listen to me for a change,” Max barked, causing Ivy’s shoulders to jerk due to his forceful tone. “I know you’re upset. I didn’t really understand why you were upset until … well, until I called Mom last night.”
Ivy averted her gaze, her cheeks burning from something other than the cold. “You called Mom?”
“I did,” Max confirmed, choosing his words carefully. “I needed to know what I was missing, because I was pretty sure I was missing something. She didn’t want to tell me. In fact, she refused to tell me. Finally Dad had to get on the line and he told me what happened.”
“He shouldn’t have done that.” Ivy was mortified. “We all agreed to keep it a secret, to put it behind us.”
“I didn’t agree to that.” Max felt tears burning at the back of his eyes as he tried to maintain control of his emotions. “I love you, Ivy. You’re my sister and I’ve always loved you. You should’ve told me what happened, though.”
“It didn’t matter.”
“It obviously mattered,” Max gritted, his temper coming out to play. “If I’d known … .”
“What?” Ivy challenged, raising her eyes. “What would you have done? They were minor girls who got off on bullying people. I usually didn’t care because I was out of their line of sight. Things happened … things got out of control … but they’re long over and done now.”
“You still should’ve told me,” Max complained. “I would’ve stood with you.”
“I know you would have, but that wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Ivy, you let me come home and go on and on about how hot Maisie and Ava were in that pageant,” Max reminded her. “You didn’t stop me. You didn’t say a word to stop me.”
“I couldn’t. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to remember it. I still don’t.”
“Pretending it didn’t happen doesn’t fix anything,” Max charged. “You need to tell Jack. Once you do, it’s all out in the open and you can put it behind you. I’ll be with you, if you want, when you do. I know it bothers you to think about, but Jack wants to know.”
“Jack already knows.”
Whatever Max was expecting, that wasn’t it. The oxygen whooshed from his chest. “Since when?”
“Since last night. He beat it out of me.”
“Obviously not literally,” Max said dryly.
“No, not literally,” Ivy agreed. “In fact, he did very little prodding. He simply said I wanted to tell him and I realized it was true. I told him. It’s done. Let it go.”
“I’m not sure I can do that,” Max argued. “I understand now why you didn’t want me to date Simone. It was bad enough that Ava and Maisie were in on it, but Simone was an adult at the time. She should’ve known better.”
“She’s a terrible person. She always has been.”
“Yeah, well … I’m still going to want to talk about this at a future time. I know you’re dealing with other stuff right now and you want to let it go, but we’re going to talk about it.”
“I just want to put it behind me, Max.”
“Yeah, well, I want to talk about it and then take revenge on Maisie, Ava, and Simone.”
“Revenge?” Ivy cocked an eyebrow, intrigued. “What kind of revenge?”
“I don’t know, but I figure we’ll have fun planning it. It can be a brother and sister thing.”
For the first time in days, Ivy felt as if the distance between Max and herself was lessening. “That sounds fun.”
“I agree.” Max took them both by surprise when he pulled her forward and gave her an awkward hug. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I should’ve told you back then.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still sorry.” Max released her and smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Other than looking for me so we can make up, what are you doing out here?”
“I wasn’t looking for you, although I’m glad we made up.” Ivy returned the smile for a long beat and then let it fade. “I’m missing three girls … and I’m a little worried.”
“Well, let’s see if we can find them,” Max suggested. “They can’t have gone far.”
“Unless one of them is at the hospital falling into Jack’s trap.”
Max realized what she was inferring right away. “Oh, well … I guess we’d better look then, huh?”
“That’s why I’m out here.”
“When I tell the story in the future, I’m going to change that detail,” Max said, slinging an amiable arm over her shoulders. “I’m going to say you were so broken hearted you couldn’t bear another minute without me.”
“You’re kind of a tool. You know that, right?”
“You love me anyway.”
Ivy thought about arguing, but there was no sense denying the truth. “You’re still a tool.”
“I can live with that.”
“WE’VE GOT A LIVE ONE.”
Jack and Brian were only locked in the room for twenty minutes before one of the uniforms in the hallway radioed in a tip.
“Report,” Jack prompted.
“We have an unidentified female at the nurse’s station,” the officer replied. “She’s carrying flowers and asking about Aubrey Daniels’s room.”
“Can you describe her?”
“She’s wearing a hat and scarf.”
“Inside? That has to be on purpose.”
“That would be my guess,” the officer agreed. “She looks to be slim with dark hair. That’s all I can tell you because I can’t see her face.”
“Where is her location?”
“She’s heading toward the room now,” the officer replied. “She’s almost at the door. She’s walking through the door. You’re good to go, we’ll continue watching the rest of the floor.”
“Let’s do this.” Jack pocketed the radio before striding out the door, Brian close at his heels. He walked directly across the hallway and opened the door to the dummy room, pulling up short when he caught sight of the woman approaching the bed. “Can we help you?”
The woman jolted at the voice, turning quickly and widening her eyes as they bugged out of her head.
“Simone,” Jack said, making a clucking sound with his tongue. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“I was hoping you were better than this, Simone,” Brian said, disappointment and disdain positively dripping from his tongue. “I should’ve known better. You’ve never been better than this, have you?”
Twenty
“What are you doing here, Simone?”
Jack’s demeanor was calm, but his agitation level was through the roof. The story Ivy told him the previous night filled him with
fury. It was bad enough Maisie and Ava were part of the shenanigans. They were children at the time, though. Simone had been an adult.
“I … um … came to see Aubrey.” Simone was clearly caught off guard, her face unnaturally white as she clutched a bouquet of cheap flowers to her chest with one hand and her purse to her side with the other. “I was her pageant coordinator, after all. Why wouldn’t I come to visit?”
“I’m kind of curious why you wouldn’t call first,” Brian said, causing Simone to shrink back when he shuffled closer. “I mean … I would think you would get permission from Aubrey’s parents before you stopped by. She’s extremely sick, after all.”
Simone made a face as Brian peered over the lip of the heavy purse clutched at her side. “What are you doing?”
“Just taking a look.” Brian was purposely bland and he reached into Simone’s purse before she could say anything, withdrawing what looked to be a syringe full of yellow liquid. “What’s this?”
Whatever color she had left – which wasn’t much – drained from Simone’s face. “You can’t just reach into my purse and take something out of it,” she sputtered, flustered.
“Your purse was open and I saw the item in question on top,” Brian argued. “It’s my job to ask questions if I sense there’s going to be a problem, one that could result in someone getting hurt. Here’s the thing, Simone, I think you’re here to hurt someone and it’s my job to stop you.”
“You can’t possibly think that’s in my nature,” Simone complained, her eyes going wide when Brian lifted the syringe up to the light. “I … that’s not mine. It must have fallen into my purse.”
“That’s not likely, but we’ll certainly look in to it.” Brian pursed his lips. “We need to send this to the state lab. I’m going to bet it’s full of antifreeze.”
“What did you think, Simone?” Jack challenged, his temper coming out to play. “Did you think you could sneak in here, dose Aubrey, and then sit back and watch the doctors blame it on the previous poisoning if she died? Did you honestly think you would get away with it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Simone whimpered, all signs of defiance vacating her eyes. “I just came to visit Aubrey.”
The decoy in the bed rolled over and gave Simone a bright smile. “Well, thanks for the visit,” the officer said, grinning.
“I think we need to have a talk,” Brian said, grabbing Simone by the elbow and leading her toward the door.
“I’m in no mood to have a talk,” Simone snapped, returning to reality. “I have to get back to Shadow Lake in time for the pageant. Sadie is competing.”
“We’re all going to return to Shadow Lake together,” Jack said. “You’ll be riding with us.”
“I am not talking to you without a lawyer present,” Simone argued. “It’s not going to happen.”
“You can call your lawyer from the station,” Brian said. “You are riding with us, though.”
“How do you think you can force me to do that?”
“Because you’re under arrest,” Brian said. “You have the right to remain silent … although, with you, I’m going to bet that’s impossible.”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK it means?”
Max stayed close to Ivy as they searched the festival grounds.
“What are you talking about?” Ivy was understandably distracted as she scanned faces.
“The fact that these are the three girls missing,” Max prodded. “Do you think that’s somehow significant?”
Ivy shrugged, unsure how to answer. “I think it’s probable that Mackenzie is hiding because she doesn’t want to be part of the pageant. This isn’t her thing and her mother is making her do it.”
“That sounds familiar. Is that why you’ve bonded with her?”
“I’ve hardly bonded with her,” Ivy scoffed.
“But you have. She’s the one you’re most protective of. She’s the one you like to talk to. She reminds me of you in some ways.”
“She reminds me of me in some ways, too, which is why I’m not terribly worried about her,” Ivy said. “She’s probably faking sick or coming up with some other scheme to get out of the pageant. That’s what I planned to do back in the day.”
“That means you’re worried about Sadie and Peyton,” Max surmised. “Do you think they’re in this together?”
Ivy tilted her head to the side and considered the question. “I don’t know. That didn’t even occur to me.”
“What did occur to you?”
“I think Sadie is definitely involved, and it makes sense,” Ivy replied. “She’s manic about this pageant. To her, life will surely end if she doesn’t win the title. Her mother has drilled that into her head to the point where Sadie actually believes she’ll be kicked out of the family if she doesn’t win. I’m guessing that means Simone has given her instructions and Sadie believes she has no choice but to follow them.”
Max snorted, disbelief flitting through his eyes. “Why would she possibly believe that?”
“Because it’s what happened to Sarah,” Ivy answered without hesitation. “Sarah didn’t win the competition like she was supposed to. Simone melted down. Sarah left town right after that and I’ve never seen her since. Have you?”
“I … .” Max broke off, racking his brain. “Now that you mention it, Simone doesn’t ever mention Sarah. All she talks about is Sadie. It’s as if she only has one daughter. I almost forgot about Sarah.”
“I think that’s on purpose. Sarah distanced herself from Simone after the meltdown when she lost the pageant crown. She was embarrassed. I also think it was an escape of sorts because Simone was abusive.”
“Now, wait a second,” Max cautioned. “Granted, I haven’t spent that much time around Simone, but from everything I can tell, she’s a doting mother.”
“There are different types of abuse. What I saw the day Sarah lost the pageant was definitely abuse.”
“Maybe Simone got a little … crazy … that day,” Max conceded. “She didn’t hit her or anything, though.”
“She pulled her hair. I saw it. Also, sometimes verbal abuse is worse than being smacked around,” Ivy noted. “Trust me. When Maisie and Ava went after me, I would’ve much rather taken a punch in the face than what happened.”
Max’s lips turned down. “I want to punch them, too.”
“You should probably refrain from that. You could go to jail.”
“I’ll hold your purse while you do it.”
“That’s a better plan.” Ivy patted Max’s shoulder as a form of solidarity. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I think Simone has a few diagnosable personality disorders. Narcissism is the big one, but she’s a borderline sociopath, too. She doesn’t care about her daughters as much as she cares about the accolades they can arrange to be heaped on her.”
“But … through the pageant?”
“I’m not saying it’s rational or anything. I think somehow Simone has convinced herself that life begins and ends with this pageant. I can’t explain it, but it’s become glaringly obvious that she’s twenty slices short of a loaf.”
Max tilted his head as he considered the statement. “She is a bit manic.”
“Yeah, although she was with you when my house was vandalized.” Ivy tapped her bottom lip. “Maybe that’s where Peyton comes into play. Maybe Peyton is the one who came to the house.”
“That’s a possibility, but you’re overlooking the obvious answer,” Max countered. “Simone came to my house to make dinner. It was just the two of us, and now that I look back, I can’t help but wonder if she was purposely setting up an alibi.”
Ivy was intrigued. “Because she sent Sadie to do her dirty work?”
“Sadie wasn’t with us and Simone said she was hanging out on her own and doing homework,” Max replied. “The thing is … it’s winter break. Why would Sadie be doing homework when she doesn’t have to go back to school until Monday?”
“Not everyone has the same dim view
of school that you do. Maybe she wants to get ahead.”
“From what Simone said, Sadie is planning on getting through life on her looks, not her smarts. Simone almost seemed proud of that when she said it. I should’ve realized something was off then.”
“You should’ve realized something was off the minute she smiled at you,” Ivy muttered under her breath. “That’s hardly important, though. I want to know where Sadie and Peyton are. I left Aunt Felicity and Hannah in charge of the girls. They’ll be fine. The most important thing is to find Sadie and Peyton. I don’t know that they’re both involved, but I’m going to bet Sadie at least knows what’s been going on.”
“Then let’s split up,” Max suggested. “You have your phone and we can cover more ground if we separate. It’s the middle of the day, so it’s not like either of them is going to attack. If you see them, keep your distance and call me. I’ll do the same.”
Ivy smiled, happy to be back on the same side as her brother. “That sounds like a plan.”
“Let’s do this.”
SIMONE WOULDN’T STOP twisting and shifting in the backseat of Brian’s cruiser as they headed toward Shadow Lake. The longer she remained caged, the more irrational she became.
“I’m going to sue you guys for entrapment,” she volunteered, letting loose with a low cackle as she leaned back in the seat. Her hands were cuffed behind her and she made the occasional groaning noise as she tried to free herself, but otherwise she went through stretches where she wouldn’t talk and only stared.
“Good luck with that.” Brian was blasé. “We’ll help you find a place for Sadie to stay when we get back to town. Maybe she can visit her father or something.”
The snort Simone almost choked on was derisive. “Her father won’t take her. I won’t let him. He says she’s spoiled and wants her to talk to a therapist … like I would allow that.”
The more Simone raved, the more insane Jack found her to be. Something about the way she carried herself set his teeth on edge.
“Maybe Sadie can stay with your other daughter,” Jack suggested, playing a hunch. “She’s not that far away, right? I believe her name is Sarah.”
Wicked Hearts (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 9) Page 18